Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Now I do my best to scour the local interwebs for really cool and unusual events happening around Austin, but occasionally things sneak by.

That’s why here at AE we like to surround ourselves with people like Frank Rivera. Frank is kinda awesome (and I’m only saying kinda because his head is just about the right size without us going and inflating it. I mean what if he wants to wear a fantastic little hat for Christmas?). So my point is that yesterday I invited Frank to a little event that the Alamo Drafthouse is doing this Sunday called Santa vs. Satan, and Frank being the kind person he is, fired a response back that asked me if I had heard that Mortified would be performing a show at the Drafthouse Ritz tonight at 7pm.

Now I have no idea how this snuck past me, but after reading the description I realized that I was actually familiar with Mortified. I had come across a segment 2 years ago that This American Life had done where they used a performance from a woman named Sascha Rothchild. You see, Mortified takes those old diaries, love letters, and photos that we all have from our angst-riddled youth and gives people a stage to share them on. So imagine that you are now 27, and you find that old shoebox you kept all of those dramatic middle school love letters in. How ridiculous would they sound if you were to read them aloud today? My guess would be VERY…

Now this brings us back to Sascha Rothchild. Sascha was one of the original performers and contributors when Mortified was officially created in 2002, and to give you a better idea of what Mortified is, I thought I’d share the clip that I originally saw on This American Life. A little background: She’s a white Jewish girl that grew up in Miami Beach, where she kept a meticulous diary that chronicled the 13th year of her life. Fast forward 17 years later, and she is now a published author and a writer for LA Weekly. The clip below features her reading portions that diary to a room full of strangers… to hilarious effect.

If this sounds like an awesome time, then I recommend you get on over to the Ritz’s website and nab yourself a ticket ASAP. Last time I checked they were still available for $12 and can be purchased here.

I should also note that it is my understanding that tonight’s performances will mostly be by local Austinites.

That’s all I got…

g.

Don’t just take our word for it, look at what all these fancy people are saying:

Thank you so much for dropping by Austin Eavesdropper. How apropos that you are performing your Mortified piece on Valentine's Day...can we get an extra offensive Sascha Rothchild adolescent love letter?

Also cannot wait to get a copy of your book, too. We would love to interview you here on AE about it, and should you ever swing down for a reading at BookPeople we will be there, puff painted posters waving!

I was in West Hollywood last February 13th for my 30th birthday, and I've seriously been considering going back again this year (Jesus that is a debaucherous place). If I do in fact end up in WEHO again, i would be awesome to catch another Mortified show.

Thanks for the tip, and good luck with the book (and seriously, if you ever do a tour, Book People is excellent)g.